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China has escalated its threats over Nancy Pelosi’s potential visit to Taiwan this week and conducted naval exercises across the region, just hours before the US House Speaker was expected to arrive in East Asia. Pelosi’s office announced that a Congressional delegation headed by the Speaker had departed on Sunday for Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea

Matt Raynor is stressed. The 53-year-old chair of Raynor Foods has recently approved a £1,200 signing-on bonus for sandwich makers; tonight he will work a six-hour picking and packing shift at the company’s Essex plant because of staff shortages. “It’s been the worst two-and-a-half years of my life, with the disruption, the chaos,” he says.

When Steve Bannon described Brazil’s 2022 presidential election as the “most important of all time in South America”, the former Trump adviser had at his side a man as close as anyone to Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro — his son Eduardo. Introduced by Bannon at an event in South Dakota last year as the “third

Solidarity is often hailed in EU circles as a value underpinning the bloc. In its preamble, the treaty of the EU states that its members will strive to deepen the bond among themselves. But the wrangling over how to organise in case Russia cuts off gas supplies shows solidarity is not a given. The moment

UG Investment, one of the oldest hedge funds specialising in Chinese markets, is planning to open its first office outside greater China to step up investment in south-east Asia in a move that would help it guard against the risks from any conflict between China and Taiwan. The fund, which manages assets of about $4bn,

Joe Biden has tested positive again for Covid-19, three days after announcing he was negative and resuming his in-person White House activities. The US president’s doctor, Kevin O’Connor, said Biden’s case was an example of “rebound” positivity, which sometimes occurs in patients who have taken Pfizer’s Covid-19 antiviral drug. “The president has experienced no re-emergence

Foreign investors have pulled funds out of emerging markets for five straight months in the longest streak of withdrawals on record, highlighting how recession fears and rising interest rates are shaking developing economies. Cross-border outflows by international investors in EM stocks and domestic bonds reached $10.5bn this month according to provisional data compiled by the

Zambia’s official creditors led by China have agreed to provide debt relief to the southern African nation, paving the way for an IMF bailout and setting a precedent for how Beijing could work with other lenders to tackle the threat of a wave of defaults across emerging markets. A committee of creditors co-chaired by China

Europe’s lenders have endured a painful decade waiting for interest rates to rise. But just as central banks finally start to move, the long-awaited earnings windfall is being threatened by looming recession and fears that cash-strapped governments might hit lenders with new taxes. Last week, the European Central Bank raised interest rates for the first

The chief executive of KPMG’s business in the United Arab Emirates has held face-to-face meetings with key clients in an attempt to shore up confidence in the firm following weeks of unrest relating to his leadership and complaints about governance. Nader Haffar, head of KPMG Lower Gulf since 2018, and other senior leaders at the

The boss of the UK’s accounting regulator has backed EY’s plan to split its audit and consulting businesses, saying the break-up would bring “distinct benefits”. Sir Jon Thompson, chief executive of the Financial Reporting Council, told the Financial Times he supported the idea of a split that would build on his watchdog’s agreement with the

Sarina Wiegman knows how to win. As a footballer she collected a bevy of league titles and cup medals, while every team she has coached has won a championship — at least until now. On Sunday, England’s Dutch coach will attempt to keep her winning streak intact as she leads out a team chasing its

It wasn’t “Guernica”, said the critics, but the potato painting I made about acid rain at Elmwood Junior School circa 1988 had a primitive grace. If the fickle art world shuns it, blame the passing of that ecological horror from public discourse. Blame the Montreal Protocol and the banning of chlorofluorocarbons. So well did global

The customers that walk through the doors of Ramsdens pawnbrokers use the lending service in starkly different ways. “We’ve got a very good customer [with] a platinum Rolex, which is probably worth about £50,000 [or] £60,000,” said Peter Kenyon, the company’s chief executive. “He’s a builder and when his cash flow is short he gives

Thousands of British companies are cutting economic ties with China en masse, threatening to heap more pressure on the cost of living, the head of the CBI business group has warned. Tony Danker, the CBI director-general, said chief executives were increasingly switching business links from China to other countries in anticipation of a further deterioration

Staff in Boston Consulting Group’s London office have complained about “nepotism” after the children of dozens of top partners flew in from across the world for an exclusive week-long work experience programme. The US-based consultancy ran the programme, consisting of days of workshops, this month for about 30 children of the firm’s managing directors and

Marlies Jakob was one of dozens of ordinary Germans who took part in a phone-in show on Deutschlandfunk radio last week about sanctions against Russia. Her intervention should alarm policymakers from Paris and Brussels to Berlin. Jakob said she was prepared to take cold showers and wear three sweaters in winter if that would stop

KPMG has accused the management of collapsed UK outsourcer Carillion of concealing information from its auditors and of doctoring financial documents provided to the firm to make them more “audit friendly”. The Big Four firm denied it was responsible for £1.3bn of losses claimed from it in a negligence action by liquidators for Carillion, which

American holidaymakers lucky enough to make it abroad this summer may find themselves pleasantly surprised by the might of the dollar — up 10 per cent this year against other major currencies. Cheap ice creams on the beach await. But this strength is bad news, and a side-effect of the US having both a serious

Foreign secretary Liz Truss was prepared for former chancellor Rishi Sunak to take her on this week in the television debates about the race to be Britain’s next prime minister, but not with such ferocity. “For the TV debates we prepared for three scenarios: that he went on the attack, that he was Mr Patronising,